Thesis Defense Day

At 8:30 this morning, I will present my thesis defense. I'm very much looking forward to it! 

I'm presenting it my way - which means humor, energy and lots of pictures. 

I'm proud to say there's not a single bullet point in the entire presentation. There are over 50 charts, but I blow through them in less than 30 minutes (not counting time for questions). Some charts don't stay on screen for more than a few seconds. Oh, and I made some stickers to hand out afterwards, just for fun.

So, it's not your typical military/academic approach to giving a presentation. There's a very real possibility it will bomb, at least with some members of the audience. But I can't force myself to do a boring, standardized, bullet-point-ized presentation... not on a topic that's so important to me, which I've been researching and working on since at least 2003. It's my show, baby. It's my story. I gotta tell it my way.

I still have some course work to finish up for my one last class, and two final projects in that class to turn in by March 16th, so I won't be all done with school today... but a big milestone will have been passed (I hope!), and a big chunk of my work over the last year has finally come to fruition.

On with the show!